This is how two of the posters I designed for our first feature film “Jerry” evolved through 38 versions. Sometimes the variations between versions were slight and sometimes not.

Final v37

There were a few standout images from the movie and the still of Steven poking Jerry was one of them. I remember seeing the footage in post and thinking that it felt like the poster. The image captures the essence of their relationship and the heartfelt tone of the movie. I like the perspective of the city in the poster because while it shows the strip and downtown in the background, you have houses and neighborhoods in the foreground, the parts of Vegas you don’t often see in movies.

Final v38

This poster uses a single still image from the opening sequence of the movie when Jerry is driving into town. We liked the idea of being in the car with him, going on an adventure, not knowing what was going to happen. The image was manipulated in subtle ways, to bring Jerry out more in the rear view mirror, to enhance the sky through the windshield, and to darken certain areas of the interior of the car.

The Process

Our process through this evolution was that everyone who was designing a poster would present what he or she had in our weekly group meetings to receive feedback from the group. Everyone would share his or her thoughts and then each person designing a poster would crawl back inside Photoshop to take another crack at it. Max, Josh, Brandon and I were all exploring different ideas with the poster.

I don’t have any formal training in Photoshop; rather I learned by doing, by asking for help, and by searching for help online. I still have a lot to learn but over the course of making the poster, my skill set grew tremendously.

The poster that Brandon designed ended up becoming the cover art for the Original Soundtrack. Max was designing a cool poster that took a lot of time and effort – he scanned pictures of key props from the movie and then traced them in Photoshop.

Josh also played around with some ideas using different still images from the movie.

We also used some of our other poster designs in our marketing and promotion, and continue to make new artwork. Max recently designed this poster.

He used one of the other standout images from the movie; Jerry and Rachel watching the sunrise over the strip after staying out all night together. We shot this scene at 5am two consecutive mornings. The natural light we were looking for came and went in a matter of 30-40 minutes so we had to get our shots fast. This is one of my favorite shots from the movie because it captures a romantic moment of a familiar skyline from a vantage point that you don’t typically see. When we shot this scene, I hoped to capture the feeling of having one of those nights with someone that is magical and that you hope will never end. The beauty of the light and setting help to create that romantic, almost surreal tone. What’s unique and sad about this vantage point is that its no longer accessible. Houses were built right on top of it so you can’t park and sit there anymore. At the very least, we’ll always be able to revisit it in “Jerry”.